One of the great toy lines of the immediate post-Star Wars era comes from Milton Bradley. Sold under the umbrella name of Star Bird starting in 1978, these space age toys are much-prized collectibles, especially today.
The Milton Bradley Star Bird (later released as the Star Bird: Avenger) was described on the box as a “space transport” featuring electronic engine sounds, firing “photon beams” and “battle sounds.”...
The ship was truly state-of-the-art for the time, because if you owned two Star Birds they could electronically duel with one other.
Or as the box put it: “Fire your photon beams and hit the alien spaceship. Hear distress signals and sputtering engine sounds!”
The Star Bird — like Gerry Anderson’s Starcruiser 1, which I recently covered — was actually several starships housed as one. Mounted on the dorsal side of the ship was an “escape pod” and cannon, in case of battle damage.
Also, perched on each wing of the large star bird stood a small one-man “interceptor fighter.”
Finally, the Star Bird itself could be disassembled to create a smaller fighter by detaching the engine and the cockpit section, and then re-assembling them together without the main hull...
One of my Holy Grail pieces. I actually turned this one down at the Radio Shack in exchange for a lame pong game.
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